Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The article presents an in-depth identification of the polemological aspects of research on the subject of wars and armed conflicts of the 21st century. Moreover, it discusses the evolution, scale and nature of contemporary, as well as future wars and armed conflicts. The article refers to the essence, properties and characteristics of ‘new wars’ and the possibility of studying them by using appropriate instruments. Based on the conducted research, an attempt is made at forecasting wars and armed conflicts of the future. The article also highlights the activities and functioning of contemporary research institutes and facilities engaged in the analysis of war and armed conflicts, and focuses on the legitimacy and needs of implementing the polemological approach to the research of the presented subject in the present global-informational security conditions.

The elementary interest of every country is to maintain its inner security and stability. To achieve this goal the state must restrict within legal frameworks some fundamental rights of its own citizens. One of these fundamental rights is the right to privacy that can be breached only under certain circumstances. It is easy to see that it is unacceptable for a state not to control within the legal frameworks the communication of its own citizens so they can commit crimes, run terrorist rings, or spy rings or establish drug cartels without any consequences. Of course, the control over the communication is not the only means of the successful investigation but undeniably a vital one. That is why the Janus faced nature of the Dark Web is a real security risk nowadays. Although this new medium is the fruit of the last two decades its presence today is stronger than ever before and its popularity is growing day by day. Its most important features are anonymity, hidden geolocation and freedom from censorship. The Dark Web is very useful when it provides anonymity for political dissidents and whistleblowers, but is very harmful when it provides the same features for arm and drug traffickers and terrorists not to mention for pedophiles and so on. This article aims to shed some light on the effects of the Dark Web on the security and economy of the states especially in the aspects of organized crime and the terrorism.

Polemology and irenology that have been evolving since the Second World War are relatively unknown. There is much misunderstanding about polemology and irenology and what can be done with research results. The methodological competition between polemology and irenology indicates their differences due to the opposite research subject (war-peace), the system of concepts, and the usefulness of research results. The aim of the article is to present the basic assumptions of irenological and polemological research and to propose a common area of research on peace and armed conflicts. The article presents a thesis about the need to integrate polemological and irenological research. Due to the research problem and the subject of research, a qualitative strategy and appropriate research methods were used in the research process. The obtained research result indicates that it is not justified to conduct research on peace and armed conflicts separately, but as a whole as a study of peace and armed conflicts. The conclusions from the research indicate that the genesis, diagnosis and prognosis of peace and conflict-related processes is justified in the range of long cycles from minus 50 to plus 50 years in relation to the started research process.

Although the issues of military studies are increasingly analysed in the framework of political science, the representatives of international relations and military studies use different ways of interpreting military power – one of the key aspects of military studies. With the intention of expanding the possibilities of applying theories of international relations to military studies, this article aims to show the need for a synthesis of theoretical insights into neoclassical realism and military studies for scientific interpretation and research of the military power structure. The inducement of inter-paradigmatic debates by revealing and comparing military power explanation methods reflects a theoretical attempt to expand the possibilities for the application of international relations theories on warfare studies. Although the application of neoclassical realism theory to the explanation of military power is not new, this study explores broader possibilities of the application of this theory. The study substantiates the influence of non-material resources and unit-level variables on the structure of military power while making the assumption that neoclassical realism creates conditions to reveal the process of military power conversion but not the content of military power.

Securitisation is an intersubjective process of construing new categories or subcategories of security by identifying existential threats, the alleviation of which requires extraordinary measures and social acceptance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, both during the near-total lockdown, as well as in the period where restrictions were loosened, the messages presented in public space, calling for specific behaviours, displayed certain signs of this process – the limitation of citizens’ rights without the introduction of a state of emergency, as provided for by law, was carried out on the grounds of an extraordinary threat (threat of infection, illness or even death) the eradication of which requires extraordinary measures (depriving citizens of the possibility of moving, working, learning, taking advantage of entertainment or pursuing their passions, as well as imposing an order to wear masks and maintaining social distance) to be applied, which ˜– on the one hand – were introduced under the pain of punishment, while on the other, they were supposed to be met with general acceptance as rational and just. The following paper presents the results of a study of communications appearing in the public space in the period from March to August 2020 in Poland, which were to support the process of securitisation of the pandemic threat.

Family businesses are identified in many instances as small-scale entities. However, among family businesse, there are many huge corporations, and many of the world’s best-known brands are classified as being family orientated. They generate large revenues, which play a very important role in the global economy. In Poland, several examples of well-known brands belonging to families can be found, such as Mokate, Comarch and Farmacol. The aim of the article is to present selected large Polish family businesses against the background of some of the largest family businesses globally and to determine the difference between them. The research followed an empirical approach and is based on the analysis of secondary data sources, such as Ernst & Young Family Business Yearbook report series from 2015-2017, the Global Family Business Index ranking, and studies on Polish family businesses. The analyses confirmed that many of the global largest enterprises are indeed family businesses. The importance of family businesses in the economy is evident by the fact that in 2015, enterprises from the Global Family Business Index generated revenues higher than the GDP of most countries in the world. None of the large Polish family businesses have yet found their place in the analysed ranking, but also, in Poland, family businesses play a significant role, and some of them generate revenues of several billion dollars. Familism does not prevent enterprises from achieving a significant position in the market the largest family businesses in the world play such a strong role that their success or failure may affect the condition of the entire economy. Polish family businesses are not yet included in this group, but they are constantly growing. It can, therefore, be anticipated that in a few years, Polish family businesses will have a good representation in the Global Family Business Index and will help to ensure sustainable development of the Polish economy.

The article discusses the problem of prevention of radicalisation in religious schools in Europe. In this publication the authors of the publication aim to present a systematic analysis of the legal framework of religious education and its relationship and limitations in the aim to prevent radicalization. In order to achieve the aim of the research the following tasks will be carried out: revealing of the essence of the freedom of right of thought, religion and conscience and their relation to religious education; analysing documents, strategies and policies addressing the prevention of radicalization in Europe; evaluating the intersection of right to religious education and the need to prevent radicalisation. The question is relevant due to the ever-increasing number of terrorist acts performed by persons who have been born in European states (so called home-grown terrorists). The publication discusses the right to religion and the right to religious education and its limitations. The development of EU policy in the field of counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation is extensively discussed. Finally, the guidelines are drawn for the conciliation of the freedom to religion and beliefs and the pressing need to prevent persons from radicalisation.

In the Middle East, vast oil reserves led to economic modernization and prosperity in the region. However, it is one of the most conflict-prone regions. This paper studies the relationship between military spending, oil and development in Middle Eastern countries using a panel data fixed effect for country-level observations over the period 1986–2016. The relationship between development and conflict will not be uniform throughout the region. Therefore, to test this hypothesis, the study categorized oil exporting countries into three parts that are countries with above average oil export, below average oil export and no oil export. The estimates show a significant reduction in military spending over time and the most declines were observed in the countries where oil export is above average than the Middle East. The results indicate a significant inverse relationship between the military spending with exports and oil rents in overall Middle East analysis and for countries whose average oil export is greater than the Middle East. It is also found that the military burden adversely affects economic growth across all the model specification. However, military spending is declining over time which indicates that there is a reverse causality between development and conflict. It is crucial finding in the context of peace and development literature.

International migration is a functional component of modern societies, both wealthy and poor. In a way, one can see that migration solves the unequal distribution of people and opportunities. Despite the political pressure to control immigration, almost all changes in politics have broadened the scope of legal immigration to allow for settlement by refugees, farm workers (in case of urbanrural migrations), “illegal” immigrants with long-term residence in the country, and workers in great demand to move around freely. Our main research objective is to demonstrate, using the available data as well as the analysis of the metadata and the research literature, that migration, especially labour migration, has a narrow connection with the issues of national security. Large outflows and inflows of people might bring about security threats linked to organized crime, terrorism and the spread of radical ideas. Moreover, migration is responsible for the brain drain of young and well-educated people who are searching for higher wages and better opportunities abroad depriving their own home country of valuable human capital. Our paper analyses the phenomenon of international migration perceived from the angle of migration culture that goes hand in hand with recent globalization trends all around the world. We come to a solid conclusion that migration policy should be treated as an important element in establishing well-ballanced national security policy in the globalized world. It might be of a particular interest for the migration scholars, labour market economists and stakeholders and policy-makers dealing with the issues of national security, public and migration policies, as well as sustainable economic development.

World Wide Web, Information Technologies and Web-Enabled Collaborative Technologies 2.0 accelerate the process of globalization. In modern globalization process, these technologies dictates how information is designed and how information flow is used in global communication system. In such interactive global environment, Fourth Generation Warfare has emerged where people’s identities and beliefs are the primary source of conflict. Primary fight is held not between countries, but between cultures. It is obvious – the nature of war has drastically changed and it almost eliminates the boundaries between the war and peace. Such an understanding generates a different view of modern warfare. From the modern perspective the main risks are directed to the state’s internal identity through people’s “hearts and minds” and society’s moods. People’s loyalty to attractive ideas and not to organizations is a major shift. It supports Sun Tzu’s and Clausewitz’s main ideas - winning wars without massive destruction by breaking down the enemy’s will and determination to fight with a limited use of military power. It is needed to reconsider not only the definitions of modern warfare and warfighting but also rethink the concept of combat power. It is obvious that the role of the military in peacetime activity must change significantly. Nevertheless, the new understanding rise a necessity to integrate the whole society and subjects of state in dealing with threats. The holistic defense approach is a new, more effective way of tackling modern security and sustainability issues of the states that need to be clearly defined.